Consumers back in buying mood

Consumption is starting to rise following last year's downturn, computer retailers said at the conclusion of the 2002 Taipei Computer Applications Show yesterday.

"We sold over 32,000 notebooks and 800 PCs during the course of the five-day show ? that was about 35 percent more than last year," said Dennis Chen (陳敬宏), group sales manager for Hewlett-Packard Taiwan.

Chen expects the company's sales growth to rise by 10 percent to 15 percent in the second half over the first half.

"Consumer confidence is rebounding, especially in the laptop sector," Chen said.

Consumers often choose laptops over PCs when purchasing their second computer, Chen said.

Peripheral retailers also benefited from the show.

"Sales from the event rose by about 20 percent over last year," said Danny Yao (姚鴻州), a regional director at BenQ Corp (明基電通).

Yao said he actually felt that consumer demand was recovering last month. "For example, we have seen a 35 percent increase in our LCD monitor sales in July from a month ago," Yao said.

Another industry professional, however, expressed skepticism about the near-term outlook.

"There are many uncertainties and consumption is still relatively weak," said Hank Hung (洪漢青), an IBM Taiwan Corp representative. "The stock market plummeted once again following Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) comments about a nationwide referendum on the independence issue. Consumer demand could quickly decline as a result."

Despite Hung's concerns, IBM had a sales coup.

big blue

"We sold nearly 2,000 IBM notebooks during the show. About 20 percent of those were entry-level models priced under NT$43,000," Hung said.

In an effort to attract those on tight budgets, such as students, the company offered entry-level notebooks at the show for the first time.

"The market reaction was very positive ? we will continue to promote these models over the next few months."

The company will sell about 8,000 entry-level laptops, accounting for 20 percent of the company's annual notebook sales in Taiwan by the end of the year.

Digital cameras were also a hot item this year.

"Our sales doubled this year," said Ko Keng-yu, a local digital camera retailer associated with Fuji, Olympus and Sony.

The retailer sold about 1,300 digital cameras during the show, accounting for an estimated 2.5 percent of its annual sales.

"Last year most consumers came here just to `window shop,' but this year they came to make purchases," he said.

The five-day event attracted more than 210,000 visitors and industry professionals, according to the Taipei Computer Association, the show's organizer.